Photography by Nasir Hamid

January, 2017

...now browsing by month

Behind the scenes photography from Endeavour – Series 4 Episode 2 at New College, Oxford. This was at the end of the day which you can tell by the long shadows and harsh sunlight in some of the shots. At the time I had no idea that the main storyline revolved around the band Wildwood so after watching the episode I’m glad I managed to get the group shot with the band’s manager and some of the crew. For most of my Endeavour behind the scenes photography I tend to use b&w film the most overall but on this day I only took colour film because although I had no idea how colourful the song and dance routine was going to be, I did get a little peek at part of the set the day before when a couple of scenes were being filmed in New College so I got to see the final touches of glitter being added to the rainbow and a few of the props such as the coloured watering cans and the step ladders. That was when I felt I had to use colour film.

Funnily enough, the spot where the scene with the screaming Wildwood fans was filmed in New College Lane is the same place where Tom Cruise was filming scenes from The Mummy reboot a few months earlier. You can see some of my pictures of that here.

These behind the scenes shots of Endeavour are from the first day of filming in Oxford for Episode 3 of Series 4. This was the first scene they filmed in the morning of Dr Max DeBryn cycling around Radcliffe Square but it didn’t make the final edit. I’ve cycled over those cobble stones and it’s not comfortable at all.

Behind the scenes during filming of Endeavour, Series 4 Episode 3 in Oxford. This was the first day of filming, a Sunday as I recall. It was an early-ish start and I remember the streets being quite empty and quiet but that didn’t last for long. One of the things I enjoy about putting these Endeavour blog posts together is going through my images and remembering things that happened around 6 months before. I don’t usually rush to develop my Endeavour films because I know I won’t be doing much with the shots until after the episodes have been broadcast so it’s often weeks or months until I see if there’s even anything on the rolls. After I’ve watched an episode I go through the film scans and pick out my selections to blog. That’s when the various scenes I photographed make sense. More to come.

Behind the scenes photography during filming of Endeavour series 4 episode: Canticle in New College, Oxford on a blazing hot day last July. Fortunately I was in the shade most of the time but I really felt for the dancers in their rain mac’s and welly boots. I’ve tried to show some different angles of the set that weren’t seen in the final edit because a huge amount of work had gone into it. The colours in these pictures are very different to the previous post because I used a different film, in this case Fuji Reala 100 which is one of my favourites for sunny weather photography but sadly it’s not made any more.

Behind the scenes photography from Endeavour series 4 episode 2. This was part of the opening sequence which was filmed in Radcliffe Square. The crew started very early to set this up and the day started off overcast but the clouds burnt off quite quickly as I recall and it became a real scorcher of a day. At the time I think it was the hottest day of the year. As the morning progressed the temperature started to rise and so did the numbers of tourists that flowed into Radcliffe Square. If the buildings weren’t enough to get mobile phones snapping it was the presence of a film crew that certainly did. The security crew did a fantastic job with crowd control as the numbers of onlookers increased. These shots are all from the same roll of film and you can see the harsh sunlight in some of the later shots.

Behind the scenes photography during the filming of episode 2 of Endeavour series 4 (Canticle) in Oxford last July on a scorching hot day. This was part of the opening title sequence and was filmed in New College on an immaculate lawn. The attention to detail on the set was amazing but sadly not all of it could be seen on screen because I guess you can only fit so much into a title sequence. More to come.

Behind the scenes photography during the filming of the first episode of Endeavour series 4 which is titled ‘GAME’. This was the morning of the very first day of filming in Oxford for this episode. The episode was broadcast last night (8th January 2017) on ITV and as I write this blog post I realise that I made these pictures 7 months ago. It’s nice to look back through them and remember how the 8am start meant that the streets were quiet to begin with but within a couple of hours it was mayhem as fans and onlookers crowded the pavements. I remember being impressed at how the fairly small film crew managed to clear Turl Street for a long lens shot from the Trinity College gates on Broad Street. Unfortunately I had a mishap in the darkroom while I was rushing to develop my films and two rolls got ruined so I’m unable to share those shots.